What Doesn't Meet the Eye

Visible Differences, Hidden Similarities

The Ed-Excel survey asked students to identify the characteristics of the most popular crowd in their first year of middle school or junior high. Black and mixed-race students cited "tough" more than whites, Hispanics, or Asians (see Table 8). Conversely, larger percentages of whites, Asians, and mixed-race students reported that members of the most popular crowd were "self-confident" and "outgoing." For example, there are not many differences in the percentages of blacks responding that the most popular crowd is "tough" (35 percent), "outgoing" (36 percent) and "self-confident" (39 percent). However, whites identify "outgoing" (54 percent) and "self-confident" (53 percent) more than twice as often as they identify "tough" (22 percent). Although there are no survey responses from teachers, anecdotal reports from teachers suggest that group differences in demeanor continue through high school.

Based on homework-completion rates and the ways that students carry themselves, teachers sometimes assume that black and Hispanic students not only work less hard than white classmates but also place a lower priority on earning good grades and enjoy school less. The MSAN Ed-Excel survey responses, however, do not support such inferences.

The Ed-Excel survey asked students whether their friends believe that working hard to get good grades is "very important," "somewhat important," "not too important," or "not at all important." Table 9 shows only modest race/ethnic variation in how students responded. For each race/ethnic group, roughly 90 percent answered that their friends regard studying hard to get good grades as either very important or somewhat important. The largest percentage answering "very important" was among blacks (56 percent), while the smallest percentage was among whites (42 percent). This result is the opposite of what many teachers might expect based on what they observe. Similarly, Table 10 shows that groups are quite similar in responses concerning effort and motivation. Almost half of each group agrees, "If I didn't need good grades, I'd put little effort into my classes." Roughly two-thirds agree, "I don't like to do any more schoolwork than I have to." Whites are the group that agrees most with the latter statement. Finally, nonwhite students want additional tutoring. Although nonwhites already report more hours of tutoring per week than white peers, Table 11 shows that the gap between what they get and what they want also is larger.

Groups also are similar in the percentages reporting that they enjoy their studies. Table 12 shows patterns for three variables pertaining to enjoyment of books and math problems and four measures pertaining to the percentage of the time that teachers make lessons interesting. There is no clear pattern indicating that one group enjoys school more or judges teachers differently regarding how frequently they make lessons interesting. Hispanics, at 62 percent, are the group with the largest percentage saying that they enjoy the books and plays they read for English; percentages among the other groups range from 53 percent of blacks to 58 percent of Asians. Asians (at 62 percent) have the largest percentage who enjoy doing math problems, while the lowest percentage is among whites (45 percent). Whites also are least likely to agree that history and science books are interesting.

Table 12 shows a high level of agreement among the groups about the percentage of the time that teachers make lessons interesting. Note that with the minor exception of Hispanics in social studies, fewer than half of each group agrees that teachers in any subject make lessons interesting more than half the time. For all of the groups, math ranks lowest and the other three subjects are roughly even with one another.

For all groups, students with higher grade-point averages are more prone to feel close to teachers, more likely to think that grading is fair, and less likely to think that friends avoid asking for help when they need it. Table 13 shows that among students with similar grade-point averages, students of different race/ethnic groups are quite similar in their views regarding whether grading is fair and whether they feel close to their teachers. Table 14 shows that students with higher grade-point averages are less inclined to believe that friends avoid asking for needed help.

Finally, one small but nonetheless notable difference is among students with grades in the "A- to A" range. Among these students, whites are consistently the most likely to consider grading fair, to feel close to their teachers, and to say that friends do not avoid asking for help. As most of what this paper has discussed, this pattern for white students in the "A- to A" range holds not only in the aggregate but also for most individual districts.²⁶ One plausible explanation that is impossible to prove or disprove with the present data is that teachers are more friendly and supportive to high-achieving white students than to white students with lower grades or students of other racial and ethnic groups.

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